Green Grid urges businesses use DCMM tool for datacentre efficiency

The Datacentre Maturity Model (DCMM) tool can help businesses improve datacentre energy
efficiency, hence their Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE), according to not-for-profit organisation
The Green Grid.

The free DCMM tool allows datacentre managers to benchmark performance, determine levels of
maturity and identify strategies to achieve greater energy efficiency and sustainability. The
maturity model touches on every aspect of the datacentre including power, cooling, compute, storage
and network. This gives datacentre managers a rounded view of their IT facility’s performance.

Datacentres are crucial to an enterprise maintaining its competitive edge, but at the same time
comprise cost-centres as their power consumption increases.

“At such times, it is important for CIOs and CFOs to have a grip of how their datacentres are
performing, said David Snelling, European vice-chair at The Green Grid.

“Using DCMM capability to calculate performance will help them improve their PUE.”

Today, CFOs are increasingly playing the role of chief
sustainability officers (CSOs) and tools such as DCMM can help them measure and compare their
progress in reducing energy consumption and in building an efficient and sustainable facility,
Snelling added. A complete understanding of datacentre’s energy patterns will help IT achieve a
better PUE rate. In turn, this will help them improve the business’s green credentials.

The online DCMM tool – launched by non-profit organisation The Green Grid last year – is a set
of criteria for measuring progress towards greener and more sustainable
datacentre practices.

Datacentre professionals can measure various aspect of their IT infrastructure.

“Only understanding the use and impact of mechanical cooling is not enough for IT executives
looking to develop their datacentre strategy,” said Lex Coors, an advisory council and technical
committee member at The Green Grid.

“Tools such as DCMM will offer a complete overview of current datacentre maturity levels and
help IT executives decide the capital investment in their datacentres,” Coors said.

Using the DCMM tool alongside PUE helps guide the design and population of an enterprise’s
datacentre, achieving some of the most significant PUE reporting in the industry, experts said.

The call to use free online tools to improve a datacentre’s sustainability comes as datacentre
greenhouse gas emissions are rising.

In Western Europe alone, the datacentre energy consumption was at 56 TWh until 2007 but it is
expected to nearly double (104 TWh) by 2020, according to the European Commission (EC).

Email Alerts

By submitting my Email address I confirm that I have read and accepted the Terms of Use and Declaration of Consent.

By submitting your personal information, you agree to receive emails regarding relevant products and special offers from TechTarget and its partners. You also agree that your personal information may be transferred and processed in the United States, and that you have read and agree to the Terms of Use and the Privacy Policy.

It can be tempting to stray from the security roadmap security professionals have put in place when data breaches like the Sony and Anthem breaches are all over the news. But experts say it's crucial to stick to the security basics.

The Open Data Platform has arrived, but not all Hadoop vendors are on board. The initiative, aimed at boosting interoperability, formed a backdrop for discussion at the Strata + Hadoop World 2015 conference.